[cdoxsey]

This is true of programming too. You're better off learning how to code first and then learning the theory. Once you've got a few simple projects under your belt data structures and algorithms will make a whole lot more sense.

You need to learn arithmetic before you learn algebra.

[adrianN]

I disagree. Programming languages are just formalisms for writing down the theory and because they're made in part for machines to understand, they are not optimal for humans. I think you're better off learning the theory first using some high level pseudocode before you battle with the quirkyness of real world languages.

Data structures and algorithms are made to solve real problems. You don't have to be able to code up those problems to understand them and see how the algorithm works. Some of the cleverest theoretical CS guys that I know freely admit that they're bad programmers and couldn't implement the algorithms that they describe in their papers.